Sunday, May 22, 2011

Note:every week, news aggregators address hundreds of worthwhile stories or opinions that never catch on, either because they lack an obvious follow-up or because sites that live off ad revenue would rather bang high-traffic drums over and over. Idi Amin's Briefs Rodeo provides a summary of good stuff you might have missed. He has a Bachelor's degree in political science, the rank of Field Marshal and was the last ruler of a free Uganda. He has not eaten anyone since 1980.

Welcome to America; If You Drink the Water or Breathe the Air, You Will Dieby IDI AMIN DADA

• Fracking sounds awesome, like the thing you do with a lady, or when playing Call of Duty and you headshot some guy, or a thing you say when some bandit gets on your tail in a flight simulator game. It's also a lot more environmentally neutral than "hydraulically injecting rocket fuel into the ground," especially when the process results in people being able to set the water in their kitchen sinks on fire.

• The Sierra Club asked Governor Jerry Brown (D-CA) to revise its cap and trade program, which corporations and the Environmental Defense Fund love — the same EDF which houses the environmental representative on President Obama's fracking approval research panel.

• Enjoy for a moment a must-read tale of a Republican governor who stood up to energy companies, which held a deathgrip on the state's economy, by booting out corrupt elected officials and implementing a heavy tax on their profits. This tax subsequently turned the state into the most well-off in the country during the current economic depression. It carries a $12 billion surplus, $8 billion of which came from that governor's new taxes. The state is Alaska, and that Governor was Sarah Palin.• Conservative superhero Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) was for the idea of forcing you to buy healthcare before he was against it. Jim DeMint is a bad, bad man!

• Senator John Kyl (R-AZ) is really opposed to confirming John McConnell as a US district judge, stating that his history of representing citizens in battles against manufacturers of products containing asbestos and lead paint would prevent him from being impartial and raises "legitimate questions" about his ability to not hate freedom. Also vocally opposed are senator Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III (R-AL) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), whose childhood diet of lead paint chips permanently stunted his chin growth and made him into the man he is today: the only person serving in congress whose entire brain is a malignant tumor.

Now they are in Orlando, in a rented house, passing out tracts and reading the Bible. Their daughter is 2 years old, and their second child is due in June. Joel says they're spending the last of their savings. They don't see a need for one more dollar.

• That thing in Japan is probably over, so that means the need to stay mindful of any possible environmental byproducts must be as well. At least, that's probably the reasoning behind making sure the EPA stops monitoring radiation levels in California. Or not. At this point, the reasoning could be, "We felt like kicking the shit out of the EPA because it looked at us funny." The agency is now basically our hick government's battered wife; nobody really expects The Powers That Be to come up with a reason for punching it the fuck out or denying it a sense of happy purpose, least of all them.

Almost 60 percent of the Democratic staffers responding to the survey said that the influence of lobbyists in the policymaking process has been strengthened by the 2010 "Citizens United" Supreme Court decision, which unleashed corporations to spend unlimited amounts of money on political advertising — in some cases, anonymously.

Nine out of the 56 Democratic staffers who responded to the survey said they now feel a need to "respond differently" to lobbyists.

It's weaksauce bullshit trying to blame Democratic corporatism, which has been around for longer than most of us have been alive, on Citizens United, the early 2010 Supreme Court decision which allowed for unlimited corporate donations to political campaigns. Anti-Citizens United news sells, while actual reporting of spineless business-friendly Democrats doesn't. Although, to be fair, "Democrats Admit Complete Unfamiliarity with Own Historical Platform, Unsure How They Even Got Here" isn't terribly sexy as a headline either.

• Texas is trying to steal Florida's thunder. Fill in the blank: Texas is committing $25 million to _____. If you said "education" or "health care" you'd be wrong. On the other hand, if you said NASCAR, you probably live in Texas or hate turning right when going anywhere.

This last idea might seem bizarrely violent and out of right field, but the GOP has a substantial history of seeking to punish anyone who does what they tell it. A more pragmatic solution would involve shipping these shaped-up former bangers to Egypt, where they can be bombed into a sheet of glass along with all those "terrorist" pro-Democracy Arabs that Republican policymakers have been telling to rise up to demand reform for the last 30 years.

• Here's a great Gallup survey: Americans Oppose Raising Debt Ceiling, 47% to 19%. It illustrates several important points: the lockstep hegemony of the Republican party, with 70% of them opposing it (making up for a huge bulk of that 47%), the complete disorganization of Democrats to maintain any kind of coherent belief system, and the truthfulness of this portrayal of most polling (credit to this guy): "'Knowing, as you do, jack shit about anything, what does this totally meaningless word provoke in you? Happyfeel or Sadfeel? Groan/Drool into the receiver to indicate your response.'"